Bharti Airtel is planning a massive FY 2018-19 in terms of network expansion and going head-on-head with Reliance Jio. The telco has now announced massive network rollout plans in Gujarat state. As a part of its network expansion program – Project Leap, Airtel announced its plans to add more than 6000 new sites in FY 2018-19, along with the deployment of an additional 2000 kms of optic fiber across Gujarat. While stepping up the data capacities and taking services deeper into rural and unconnected areas, the massive roll-out would mean the addition of 16 new sites every day to Airtel’s future-ready network in Gujarat. Airtel is currently offering 3G and 4G services across 10,000 towns and villages in the state.
Airtel says that this network expansion will follow the massive ramp up of Airtel’s network in FY 2017-18 which witnessed over 6600 new sites being deployed across Gujarat, extending Airtel’s mobile broadband footprint in the State to 20000 towns & villages which significantly improved customer’s user experience.
With this rollout, the number of Airtel’s mobile sites in Gujarat would go up by 25% to 29,000, which will further enhance the voice quality and network speeds. The addition of fresh optic fiber would extend Airtel’s fiber backbone to 13,800 kms and will support the growth of high-speed data services in the region.
KC Narendran, Chief Executive Officer – Gujarat, Bharti Airtel Ltd, adds, “As India’s leading smartphone network, we have committed ourselves towards the availability of best-in-class mobile broadband experience to our users in the ever-buzzing state of Gujarat. We will continue to invest aggressively in the region and take our network capabilities to the next level with more than 29,000 mobile sites by the end of this financial year, ably backed by a scaled up and strengthened infrastructure. We remain fully committed to contributing towards the Government’s vision of Digital India with our enhanced speeds, reach and coverage.”
If you recall, Bharti Airtel launched its platinum 3G services in Gujarat in October 2015, which was followed by 4G services a year later in October 2016. Gujarat was one of the first telecom circles where Airtel launched its VoLTE services in October 2017. Airtel now has a fiber backbone of 12,300 kms in the circle, and the services of Airtel are covering 20,000 towns and villages in the state.
The leading telco is offering Airtel 4G on FD LTE 1800 MHz and TD LTE 2300 MHz spectrum, while the 3G services are being offered in 2100 MHz spectrum. Airtel also announced its plans to expand network coverage in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh Circle.
